


Skipping the world

by Bloodyvalentine



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Child Stanny, Falling In Love, Fate decides, Friends to Lovers, How Do I Tag, I know it sounds weird but stick with me here, I'm talking very slow here, Jackson is a Good Friend, Just to help danny just yet, M/M, Mentions of alcoholism, Minor Character Death, Minor Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Nice Jackson, Scott is a Good Friend, Slow Build, Spoiler: it's Stiles mom, Unintentional teleportation, Whole life story, mentions of Jackson, most of the time at least, rude jackson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-23 04:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14926967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloodyvalentine/pseuds/Bloodyvalentine
Summary: Stiles is five when it happens for the first time, and it barely lasts a minute. Still, hes incredibly scared when he closes his eyes for only a second in his kitchen, and suddenly he's standing in an unfamiliar room.[...]Danny, already the reasonable one at five years old, pretends nothing has happened, because no one would believe it anyways. Maybe it didn't.Or: The story of how Stiles keeps getting forced into another boy's life, and what they do about it.





	1. Childhood to crushes

**Author's Note:**

> I had this image floating around in my head of a stanny scene, and I just had to spit it out. The scene I had in mind hasn't even come up yet, but it probably will soon.   
> It is unbeta'd, so be kind please and tell me what else to tag maybe because I suck at that  
> I hope you enjoy!

Stiles is five when it happens for the first time, and it barely lasts a minute. Still, hes incredibly scared when he closes his eyes for only a second in his kitchen, and suddenly he's standing in an unfamiliar room. It's empty except for a few boxes that make it look like someone is just moving in, and, he realizes after another moment, a young boy around his age, but about two inches or so taller, that is staring at him with wide eyes full of disbelief.  
Stiles just stares back at him, unable to say a word. The boy comes closer, slowly, step by step, until he's standing right in front of him and Stiles feels the dark, dark brown eyes staring right into his soul. He raises his hand to the smaller boys' cheek slowly, and just as it touches his freckles, he gets thrown back into his own world, confused, unsure, and a little stunned.  
He stays where he is for a few seconds before he takes a shaky step forward and just then he realizes that it had been awfully quiet, just like time had stood still until he moved again. But now it starts running again and every sound outside he didn't notice was missing picks back up. Birds, cars, the sounds of his neighbors rustling around in their yard right next to his open window.  
He would think that he imagined all of this, had it not been for that moment and the lingering feeling on his cheek where the other boy touched him.  
He doesn't tell either one of his parents, not because he thinks that they wouldn't believe him, but because he doesn't want them to be worried.

~~

Danny, already the reasonable one at five years old, pretends nothing has happened, because no one would believe it anyways. Maybe it didn't. But even now at this age he trusts himself enough to know that he did not dream any of it up or imagined it. The boy with the millions of freckles and moles across his skin had been there, he was sure about it. But he doesn't see him again the next day, or the day after that, or the next week, or the next month, so he tries to just forget about it. He just goes to preschool, tries to make friends, plays with his baby sister and brother, an lives on as normal as a kid can.  
Until the boy appears again.

~~

Stiles is barely seven when his mother is diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. He doesn't really understand much about what it means, just that his mom begins to forget things constantly. When it starts getting worse, he spends almost all his time outside if school with her and hardly ever leaves her side, trying to help her as much as he can.  
When she first gets admitted to the Beacon Hills Hospital, he doesn't even leave her side for school. He's worried, and afraid, because his dad didn't want to lie to him and admitted that his mom would at some point have to leave and go to heaven, and that she couldn't come back them, and there's no way to say that to a kid that doesn't leave them anxious and trying to spend as much time as possible with the person they love. And his dad understands, so he just let's him stay with her as long as he wants, as long as he goes to school at least sometimes so he doesn't lose track completely, and still does the homework his friend Scott, the son of one of the nurses taking care of his mother, brings him.  
So once he gets there in the mornings, he spreads his books in her lap and talks to her about what they're currently doing, and he's glad he's allowed to do that, even when she forgets his name at some point.

Until then, when one day, his mom, his sweet beloved, always caring, lovely mother, closes her eyes, opens them again, and starts screaming when he hands her a glass of water. She yells and cries for help, screaming that he is trying to poison her and struggling away from her when he begs her to “Stop, mommy please stop, it's just me”, his eyes already watering and nose running. His dad comes running in when he hears her on his way back from the cafeteria, his cup of whatever-it-was splattering on the floor as he picks up his son and carries him outside into the hallway, where he sinks against the cold wall and starts sobbing.  
He closes his eyes to the sound of the nurse that rushed in after his dad rushing around the room and trying to calm his mom down, and he opens them to the almost silence of a room he hasn't seen in two years. It's fully decorated now, Marvel posters up on the walls and batman bed sheets, colorful action figures neatly placed on a drawer next to him. And right across, the boy with the dark brown eyes is sitting at a desk and doing what looks like his homework. When he hears Stiles' quiet sobs, he turns around and immediately jumps up to comfort the crying boy.  
“You're back. I remember you”, he whispers, and just pets Stiles' hair like he's not expecting a reply, but Stiles gives one anyways.  
“I am. I don't know how.” He hears how weak his voice sounds and how stuffy his nose is, and just buries his face in the other boy's shoulder and cries. He doesn't ask any questions, just hugs him and strokes his hair until Stiles is breathing calmly again and suddenly vanishes.

~~

Stiles mom dies when he's eight. He starts covering the pain he feels with snarky remarks, jokes, and way too much hand movement. His dad just goes awfully quiet instead and sometimes, Stiles sees him sleeping on the couch, clutching a picture of Claudia to his chest, with a half empty bottle on the table in front of him. Those days, he covers him with a blanket, places a glass of water beside him and tries not to cry until he's up in his room.

~~

Danny keeps thinking about the weird little boy crying in his bedroom all the time. If he's true to himself, he's worrying about him. When the boy -that he had secretly started calling 'Moles' in his head to have at least some name- had stopped crying in his arms and just disappeared again, he kind of wished he had asked him about what had happened to make him feel this bad, and at the same time he knows that it would have been rude and very ill-timed.  
He remembers the wet patch that the tears had left on his shirt and wonders if he feels better now, wherever he is.

~~

Stiles jumps for the third time when he's walking home from school at nine years old. One moment he's on the sidewalk three blocks away from home, the next he's crossing the street next to the brown-eyed boy, in a nice looking suburban area. He hasn't changed much,only a few inches of height added, and he jumps a bit when Stiles appears. The smaller boy laughs a bit at that and once they're on the other side of the road, he stands still and starts talking.  
“It's finally time for introductions, isn't it? I'm Stiles!” The other boy -Danny, he learns- looks a little stunned, slightly overwhelmed, but he introduces himself anyways.  
“How long are you gonna stay this time?”, he asks, and now it's Stiles' turn to be stunned, because he doesn't know. He only knows that for him, back home, no time passes at all. But this is somewhere else. When he's quiet for a while, Danny just drags him along.  
They talk and talk for about ten minutes, laughing and debating over their hobbies, and they get along perfectly. At last, they reach Danny's house -at least Stiles thinks so, because he sees the outside of it for the first time right now, but his guess seems pretty legit, when the other boy pulls out a key and unlocks the door.  
Before he even passes the door frame, Stiles gets a weird feeling in his stomach and suddenly, he's back and three blocks away from his own house.  
For the first time, he actually feels sad about jumping back.

~~

Stiles' disappearance leaves Danny with a little wind brushing the back of his neck, and he almost wants to reach out to grab him and make him stay. He's unsure about why he's getting so attached to this boy, the walk today was the first time they actually talked, but Stiles' bubbly, flail-y, but still witty personality were just so comfortable to talk to. He thinks they'd make great friends, if only Stiles was there more often... but they don't have control about that, do they? So he just waits for the next time they'll see each other again.

~~

Once he turns 12, Stiles' jumps slowly start to become more frequent, he jumps three times that year and four the next. After the eighth time he's ever seen Danny, coincidentally the day Stiles turns 13, he realizes that the liking he has developed is more than just friendship, but rather a crush on the other boy. But there's no way he'd ever tell him, because he's pretty sure Danny doesn't feel the same and he doesn't want to make things awkward.  
By now, they just hang out whenever they're thrown together. The time periods in which Stiles is with Danny now are longer, and they get to actually talk longer. When Stiles is at Danny's place, they sit down and play games on his computer, just never any that are too long, just in case the smaller boy is back home before they can finish a round. Danny has gotten around to carrying a card game with him when he's sitting around somewhere once he found out that Stiles actually really likes Uno, who always keeps a comic in his backpack that he knows the other boy hasn't read yet and that they look through together. It feels like they've seen each other way more often than they do. Stiles wouldn't want it any other way.

~~

Danny realizes he's gay because of Stiles. He's always kinda known, even when he was still really young and always cared more about the princes in his favorite Disney movies (Ariel is still the best), and when his friends started to care about girls and they stopped having cooties, he just... didn't. And at some point he realized while his best friend Jackson talked on and on about that girl Lydia that had left him awestruck, that for him...Stiles was that person. He wanted to do everything to make him happy, see him all the time, be close to him and touch him and hug him and kiss. He admits that he might be overwhelmed by the feelings, but it's not like he can do anything about it except hide it, because Stiles is probably not into guys, or into anyone real at all for that matter. He seems more interested in comic characters than humans, Danny thinks, and that's okay, because if he is, he won't have to watch Stiles fall in love with someone else. 


	2. Crushes to flirts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stole one of Lydia's quotes for this and gave it away. Sue me, it fits its new owner just as well as it did her. Still unbeta'd, that won't ever change because I'm too impulsive to find a beta.  
> I hope you enjoy!

Stiles is fourteen when he actually jumps in school for the first time. He's only ever seen Danny in the afternoons, but now his classes last longer and he's at lunch break, until he suddenly isn't anymore. Instead, he's in an empty hallway, watching as Danny and a friend pass in front of him. At least whatever put him here had the decency to not make him appear in front of people and cause him to explain.  
It seems like Danny almost feels his presence, or the stare at the back of his neck, and turns around.  
"Stiles!"  
He sounds as happy as he always is, a caring look in his eyes, though combined with a subtle surprise.  
"What the hell is a Stiles?", the other guy next to him says before stopping to turn back. Stiles decides that he's a jerk right away. He's tall, blond and blue-eyed, and obviously knows that he hit bull's eye on genetics. The look on his face tells Stiles that he is repulsed by humans he deems unworthy (which seems to be him at that very moment) and he already wonders why Danny is friends with such a person. 

Danny laughs and shoves him a bit, but tells him off in his kind way.  
"Shush Jackson, _that_ ", he gestures towards Stiles, "is a Stiles. He's a friend, so be nice. He... Doesn't live around here though so I wasn't expecting him." With that, he comes over and embraces the smaller boy in a warm hug that he just wants to sink into. He pulls himself together though and leans back to take in Danny's face. Still as beautiful as last time, a bit more built, like he's been playing sports.  
"Yeah... I decided I'd drop by and say hello real quick? Don't know how long I'll stay?"  
He is totally aware that it sounds like a question more than anything else, and sees the guy, Jackson, roll his eyes from the edge of his peripheral. He doesn't care.

He notices that they still have their arms around each other only after Danny slips one around his shoulders and drags him with him to sit down in the library, yelling a "see you in econ!" over his shoulder to Jackson before he's out of sight. 

~~

The first time Danny's phone rings when Stiles is there, the smaller boy almost slaps his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound of disbelief.  
"How have I not thought about that before, how have you not thought about that, Danny goddammit we're stupid, give me your phone we need to try something!" Danny seems overwhelmed with the rambling for a moment, but does as he's told anyways.

Stiles opens the contacts and slams in his number, handing the phone back and motioning widely at a still confused Danny.  
“Go ahead, text me! I wanna know if it works!” The other boy takes a moment to realize what the hell he's talking about, but as soon as he understands what's going on, he frantically begins typing. When he's done and lays his phone back down in his lap, he looks expectantly at Stiles. But the phone he has in his hand now stays quiet, and Stiles bites his lip to cover up his disappointment as he pockets it again.  
“Well that would've been too nice...” Danny frowns a bit and nods, but says nothing. Then Stiles is all bubbly again and trying to distract both of them, but the other notices it's just the same coping method he has kept up ever since he saw him when he was nine, the meeting after he turned up crying in his bedroom. They still haven't talked about it. He's not entirely sure if he wants to bring it up at all. Maybe the next time, in two or three months.

~~

Stiles closes his eyes and is back at the park where he hung out with his buddy Scott before jumping. He has mixed feelings, because on one side he's glad he got to meet Danny again, on the other he's disappointed because his texting idea didn't work out. He moves to pull his phone out of his pocket and stare at it again, the world catches back up to his movement and starts turning again, and it at that exact moment that his phone beeps with a new text message. It shows an unfamiliar number with an area code he's never seen before in his life. Stiles almost drops his phone when he sees the message.  
_Hi, my name is Danny Mahealani, I'm a Pisces, and I enjoy comics and long walks on the beach. Wanna text?_  
“It worked, it fucking worked! Scott can you believe that, I love him and I can talk to him whenever I want now!”  
Scott gives him a puzzled look, and Stiles realizes he has never admitted to being gay or in love with a guy that is not even from anywhere they know, and that this talk might become a bit awkward. But he has no other choice but to explain now and Scott would know whether he's lying or not anyways, he knows him too well for that.  
So that's how his best friend finds out what he got caught up in.

~~

Danny almost falls out of his chair when he gets a text just a few minutes after Stiles disappears again. Even more so when he realizes what the screen says. 

**From: Stiles “Batman” Stilinski**  
_Are you trying to flirt with me via Supernatural references, Mr. Mahealani?_

His heart picks up speed and his stomach might as well be jumping out of his throat right now, because damn if he's going to stay calm now, he's only 15 after all and he feels like he deserves to get excited about being able to talk to the boy he's had a crush on for ages after all. And so what if he was flirting, because right now it definitely feels like Stiles is okay with it.

**To: Stiles “Batman” Stilinski**  
_Why, would you want me to?_

He really, really doesn't know when he got daring enough to send that, but the message is off and away before he can stop himself. So much for never talking to Stiles about his crush. This is already killing him in the best way he can imagine.

**From: Stiles "Batman" Stilinski**  
_I'm not telling._

Then, not even half a minute later,  
_Feel free to try and find out tho_

Okay, Danny thinks, maybe he is already dead and just hasn't noticed it yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this chapter!  
> Yeah I know it's a bit shorter than the first one, but I felt desperate to get it out, and I'd love to hear what you think of it!


	3. Flirts to lovers

Stiles groans and tries to bury his head in his hands, failing hilariously as he leans forward too far and almost face-plants onto the floor in front of the bench he is sitting on. Scott is giving him a weird look, one the other boy can't help but interpret as a “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?”, but chooses to ignore. He just stares at his phone in disbelief and stares at the text he just sent with gaping eyes. He's pretty sure he just fucked up royally and doesn't know what made him do that. Flirting with Danny was supposed to be so far off limits, but he just couldn't change it after what he had just seen. He's too aware of the personality he has developed over time to deny that he's a tease, and for some part, he really enjoys it. But usually, that's with girls that he knows are so far out of his league that it won't matter if he embarrasses himself, or it's in a joking matter with Scott who knows never to take him seriously.  
Now Danny, that's a whole other kind of thing. If the taller boy were to find out that Stiles is attracted to him... Just thinking about that almost sends him into a full-fledged panic attack.  
And that's the moment Stiles' phone tells him he got a new message.

**From: Danny-O**

He throws his phone at Scott in a burst of nervousness. Scott just looks slightly annoyed and confused as he stares at the phone in his lap.  
“Nope, nope, nope I can't look at that! I'm never ever looking at my phone again! I can't reply, like ever! He'll find out that I'm into him and then he'll be grossed out and never want to talk to me again but we'll have to because I keep ending up there and- mpfh!” He's stunned and continues mumbling into the hand that covers his mouth for a few moments, before gesturing at his best friend.  
“Chill, dude. He says he's up to the challenge. Definitely flirting back here.”  
And Stiles yelps, grabs his unlocked phone back from Scott, and freezes. There, in dark letters, it says exactly what the other boy announced, plus an extra sentence.

**From: Danny-O**  
_I'm up for the challenge. I've got mean methods of finding out though ;)_

With a winky-face. There's a goddamn winky-face staring back up at him and Stiles drops his phone right then and there. It lands on the grass with a soft thump and just lays there until Stiles head is clear enough again to pick it up and reply a few minutes later.

**To: Danny-O**  
_I'm eager to see then.._

And damn him if he ends the message with a smirk emoji due to his lack of self control.

~~

They text back and forth almost all through the first day, then share at least one or two brief talks the following days, and Danny desperately hopes there's no long distance fees for texting wherever Stiles lives, because his parents would most likely kill him.  
After the first few texts, they stop being as blatantly flirtatious, but his heart basically jumps out of his chest whenever he gets a new message. Once he gets home from school, all he can do is lay down on his bed, stare at the ceiling -in between the times he buries his face in his hands to giggle like a thirteen year old girl- and grin like an idiot. He feels silly, and kinda embarrassed, but his crush for ages is texting him and kinda flirting, at least he hopes so, and he feels like that validates his strange behavior.

~~

A month passes, quicker than the time between seeing Stiles ever passed before. Maybe it's because now he doesn't have to miss the smaller boy as much, when he's just a simple text away and they can talk.  
They learn more about each other, but Danny still doesn't know about the things that happened when they were children. Not until they start skyping one late Saturday night after Stiles texts him at 3am for an unknown reason and they decide to try it out.  
It works, by some miracle, and when the little window pops up on his computer screen to show a face flooded by tears and shaking shoulders, he can't help but ask.  
"Sti... What happened? Please tell me. I'm worried."  
And Stiles does. He talks about the nightmare he had in a hushed and unstable voice, how he dreamt of his father drinking himself to death and about his dead mother and about how in his dream she was blaming him, and he tells him about the night he appeared in Danny's bedroom crying. Tells the whole story of what happened at the hospital that day, and when he ends, he looks like a weight dropped from his heart.  
"I'm sorry for bothering you with that, Danny... But thanks for listening.. I should probably head back to bed now..."  
Danny hates that Stiles feels the need to apologise.

"Try to get some sleep okay Sti? I love you"  
The words are out before he can even think about it, because they just feel... _right_. He almost wants to scramble and take it back or change the meaning by adding more words or anything, because even though they've been flirting there's no way Stiles could be okay with **that** , but the other boy ends the call before Danny can finish his train of thought.  
The quiet "I love you too, Danny" echoes in the now silence of his bedroom.

~~

Stiles doesn't realize what happened until he has ended the skype call and is cuddled safely back into his blankets. Danny just told him that he loves him. And he said it back. The shock and confusion is probably clear on his face, he can feel the heat of a blush rising on his cheeks, and he's damn glad the other boy can't see him anymore. The anxiety he felt before telling Danny about his mom and his dad and how scared he is for everyone around him is almost gone, but he's traded it for something else. Now he's feeling giddiness, insecurity, and a bit of nervousness welling up in him.  
He's not sure what to think of what just happened.  
Did Danny really mean what he said? Or did he maybe mean it in a “Hey you're my best buddy” kind of way? Did he maybe really not mean it at all and just said it because he thought it was what Stiles needed to hear at that moment, to comfort him? And damn, what did he think of Stiles now that he'd said he loved him too?  
He may be overreacting a little bit, but he's just barely sixteen and he's had a rough night with too many emotions and he's in love, so his next logical thought is to want to call Scott and rant.  
But it's 4:30 am (and has he really been Skyping with Danny for one and a half hours?) and there's no way in hell his best friend is awake now. He's proven right when after about 30 seconds of ringing, he's greeted by the sound of Scott's mailbox.  
With a groan, he let's his head fall back into the pillows and thinks about a way to type out his thoughts in a text.   
Somewhere along the lines of it, he falls asleep.

~~

Danny is pretty damn close to throwing his laptop across the cafe he is currently sitting in. He decided to throw all his dignity into the wind some at some point last night, and is now trying to backtrack the IP Stiles was using to skype him. He had thought of checking the area code of the freckled boy's phone number before by typing it into google, but nothing had come up, just like it didn't exist anywhere at all. That had been the same day when he found out that for some reason, texting that number doesn't cost him any money either. They show up on his bill, but they're just listed as $0.00 and he has been confused ever since.  
Now, all he sees on his screen where it should show him the source of Stiles' IP, is a blank spot. There's nothing, just nothing, like it doesn't even exist. Like Stiles doesn't exist. And if he didn't have the proof of all their interactions, be it on his phone or the skype setup or the silly selfie the smaller one had set as his profile picture on Danny's phone, he'd start to question his sanity. But it's there, and he believes in what he sees most of the time, so he just resigns. Maybe there isn't any way to find Stiles with what he can do (which is a lot, if you tried to judge by his criminal record, not that anyone but his parents and siblings knew about that), but there is always the reassurance that he will come back to him. He has to. Especially now.

~~

When Stiles jumps back to Danny, on that very Sunday afternoon, he's anxious to look the other boy in the face. He's too afraid of what he will say about the things he discovered last night, the secrets Stiles spilled that he didn't even share with Scott. He appears in his bedroom behind him and Danny doesn't even take a second to turn around to him, like he does every time, almost like he feels Stiles appear before he really knows he's there himself. And the first thing Danny does is embrace him so tightly that he almost chokes on the air that's pressed out of his lungs. He let's himself sink into it and sneaks his hands around the slim waist in front of him, feels the sleek muscles of his back that he got from lacrosse training that Danny picked up once the surgery on his sternum was done and the doctors gave their okay, and smiles a bit at how much they know about each other. How long they've been around each other and how close they are.   
Somehow, they both turn to face each other at the same time, and Stiles almost loses himself in the dark of Danny's eyes.   
“I love you”, he mumbles before he can hold back, and he sees the soft smile spread over Danny's lips, causing his dimples to flash and Stiles' heart to swell simultaneously.   
“I love you too.” It's quiet, and Danny's voice sounds rough but comfortable, and as innocent as two sixteen year old boys can be, they end up kissing. It's soft and slow and is too filled with emotion to become anything more than that, or be anything less than just perfect.  
They break the kiss to breathe and Danny pulls Stiles back with him a bit, and the happy smile on his face turns into a cheeky grin.   
“ So you _did_ want me to flirt with you!” The taller one exclaims and Stiles can't help but laugh.   
“Yeah. Yes I did. Probably the best decision I ever made, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may kinda look like it, but it's not the end just yet... We have shit to sort out still, don't we? And we still haven't gotten to the scene that caused the idea for all of this.  
> I'm working on pushing it further and it should be another chapter, two max. As always, I'd love to hear what you think!


	4. Lovers to Boyfriends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of felt obligated to make Jackson a supportive jerk instead of just a jerk because neither me nor @LauraElizaStilinskiHale, who helped me a lot with decisions for this chapter (thanks again!), could stand having him be mean to Stiles. Now, this chapter made me hate it because I overthought shit so many times, so I hope you like it and think it's worth the annoyance it put me through.

Danny and Stiles are not exactly sure how the whole thing they have will work out. No control over when they meet, never being able to decide for how long. But they're willing to try anyways. The next meeting they have, in school, is filled with timid affection. Stiles doesn't really dare to do anything more than smile softly at him, not entirely sure if the entire thing was just wishful thinking that he had dreamed up. At some point Danny can't take it anymore and decides to pull him into his side in the middle of the hallway with an arm around his shoulder and hold his hand the entire way through the park they decide to go to. They spends a total of three hours there, laughing, talking and cuddling and kissing, finally kissing, softly and with Stiles heart beating at about three times the speed it normally does.  
Stiles' - his boyfriend's? are they boyfriends now?- kisses are soft and warm and they feel a little bit like home. Somehow, Stiles doesn't jump back till he knows that Danny needs to be home soon and they rise to walk back there.  
It's kinda sad that he didn't get to kiss him goodbye on a doorstep like a total cliche.

~~

Stiles jumps to Danny while the other boy should be on his way home from school, deciding to scare the crap out of his boyfriend (he still can't believe he's probably allowed to say that) by slightly hopping as he feels the rush of travel go through his bones, and landing loudly with both feet on the floor of Danny's school building, lucky enough to be just behind him, grab him by the shoulders and doing a “whua!” sound right next to his ear. Danny shrieks and clutches his chest, almost falling over from the (literal) jump-scare. The smaller boy has to chuckle to himself at that joke. Hehe, jump-scare...  
Two feet further, Jackson flinches and lets out a yell, then turns around and starts shouting at him.  
“The fuck is wrong with you? How do you always turn up out of nothing and why the hell do you have to do this?! No one likes you!” Stiles can see he's just enjoying taking a piss at someone right now.  
Danny frowns and punches his best friend in the shoulder softly. “Dude, be nice to my boyfriend. **I** like him.”  
Both Jackson and Stiles are gaping at the third boy now. Stiles with a grin and relief, because he hadn't dared to say the b-word just yet, and Jackson just looks shocked. Maybe he's wondering about the same thing as Stiles: namely, how the fuck a guy like him managed to score a gem such as Danny. But he does shut up and just snarls a bit at his friend before turning around and continuing on his merry way. They can only imagine the snark on his face as he doesn't even turn to say “I'm so teasing you over this later, Daniel.”  
They talk and talk. This time, Danny notices consciously now, Stiles stays around again until Danny actually has to hurry towards the house of the kid he's tutoring sometimes. He'd told Stiles that he could join them, but as Stiles says he feels the rush of leaving, and kisses him quickly, before Danny watches him evaporate into thin air. It's the first time since they were five that he actually sees it, and it's kind of fascinating. It actually looks like Stiles is getting pulled back, particle by particle, like a fading picture transition from boy to empty background.  
It's strangely beautiful.

~~

Danny is the first of them that actually realizes Stiles seems to slowly gain control over his jumps. First of all, he had stopped disappearing in the middle of a conversation. He only ever returns once Danny has said that he needs to go somewhere soon and is in a hurry. Then, it's without control, yes, but at least it's not while they're still talking. It doesn't happen when they're kissing either, and Danny seriously considers never stopping if it means that he gets to keep the other boy close. And while there are still the usual, apparently random jumps that sped up to happen every two or three months, his brain has only taken some time to realize a new pattern. It happens three times over the span of two and a half very unsure weeks. Danny can't stop thinking about Stiles, and he's craving the other boy's attention, and tells him about it, Stiles turns up pretty much falling into his lap the next time he's alone. It looks a lot like Danny's and Stiles' combined need for each other makes him appear.  
When he texts Stiles to tell him about the theory he has, the other boy tries to do push himself to jump immediately. But Danny is in public, Jackson is next to him and talking, and he figures that people around him are a definitely a no for stuff like that. So they settle on trying that once Danny is at home.  
He spends his lunch break almost going mad, because he is definitely not prepared for his best friend to start asking questions about his boyfriend right now. Some things are okay to answer, like “What's his full name? How old is he again? Where is he from?”, but then there's the other things. Like “Why is he just here randomly sometimes? And how does he turn up right out of nothing behind you and quiet enough to scare you? And even me?”, and Danny doesn't know how to answer in a way that won't make Jax want to admit him to the nearest psychic ward, but he also doesn't want to lie to his best friend of almost ten years now. That's why he decides to tell the truth and just starts rambling.  
“Actually Jax, I don't even know. Hell, I doubt he doesn't even know! We're actually kinda trying to figure that out right now... He first appeared in my room when we just moved here when I was five. He just keeps turning up, when no one is around, like he's dropping out of the sky, or more like materializing, and he didn't have any control about it at all at first, he just basically fell from whatever he was doing at the time onto the floor in front of me. I think now he can control it but doesn't know yet? Anyways, somewhere along the line I got more impatient to see him and was actually excited for when he would appear next. I thin I fell in love with him, or really realized that I did, when you started to talk about Lydia all the time. And as mad as it sounds, I'm now in a relationship with a guy that as far as I know isn't even from the same dimension or whatever as me? I can't explain it.”  
Jackson just looks at him, open-mouthed and kinda stunned. When he can close his mouth again, he buries his face in his hands.  
“You know this sounds bat-shit crazy right? If I didn't see the look in your eyes I'd say you're making this up right now. But apparently, you're serious right now... And you look like you're scared I'm gonna send you to off to get you into an asylum" it causes Danny to chuckle, his best friend really knows him too well, "I do have another question though...” And he stares intensely at Danny, face stoic and not letting through any intention. “Does he make you happy?”  
Danny nods softly and Jackson's frown turns into a subtle smirk.  
“Then I'm okay with it. I will kill him though if he fucks up.”

~~

That afternoon, Danny sits on the couch in his living room and stares at his phone. They're skyping, and Stiles' face on the screen seems concentrated, his eyes are closed and his nose is scrunched up in an adorable way. Danny finds it hard to suppress the want he feels and tries to focus on the task at hand: telling Stiles what he could possibly do to make the jump possible. They've been trying for at least 15 minutes now, and Stiles' looks like he's starting to give up by now. He was hopeful at the beginning, but at some point over the last few minutes he started doubting he could actually control it consciously.  
Danny looks at Stiles' face again and stays quiet. He just takes in the moment and notices himself fall even more in love with the small, freckled and mole-dotted boy with every second that he's allowed to look at him. The long lashes that brush against the top of his cheeks when his lids twitch as he squeezes them closed, the arch of his small nose, looking a bit like it was chiseled in stone by some antique artist. His eyes stop at the plush, soft lips, and he gets lost in the memories of how they feel under his fingertips when he brushed along them softly, and under his own mouth and tongue when they kiss. He closes his own eyes for a second and cherishes the feeling. Until he notices that it feels more real than a memory should, especially with the familiar weight that is suddenly weighing down on his thighs.  
He moves his lips against Stiles', who is now sitting in his lap, and wraps his arms around him. They fall backwards against the couch cushions and don't even think about what this means, just get lost in each other and the excitement of being together. They can try some more of these jumping expreiments later.

 

~~

 

Stiles is shocked when the most life-changing event ever since the first jump happens. It's something he never expected to be blessed with. It's a chance at a future.  
They're seventeen and in their last year of high school.  
Stiles sits next to Danny in the cafeteria, their whole upper bodies turned to each other as they talk and he can feel _his boyfriend's_ knee brushing against his leg every now and then, a hand resting on his side and a dimple-flashing grin on his face. Sometimes, Stiles steals and gnaws on some of the strawberries Danny has brought, and sometimes, he steals them just to pop them right into Danny's mouth like the romantic sap he is. Jackson, at some point, gives up on trying to get a reaction out of either of them and turns his attention to the redhead that is sitting next to him, Lydia. She's stunning, but Stiles is too caught up in Danny's words to notice.  
They don't notice how long they've sat there, until the bell rings and Danny almost jumps out of his chair in shock. When they look around, they notice they're all alone in the room, and hurry to get up and pack the lunch together so Danny doesn't get to class late. Stiles absolutely misses the rush in his stomach he gets before jumping, and disappears while he's throwing the last of the strawberries back into the lunchbox on the desk.  
Next thing he knows, he's back in the hallway of his very own high school. On the floor around him is a handful of red splatters of fruit. In the palm of his hand is a single, red berry. And he's damn sure that it doesn't belong in this place.

~~

Danny usually doesn't look at his phone in the middle of class, and even finally being with Stiles hasn't changed that. He's a top student and he doesn't want to change that just because he has a boyfriend now, thank you very much. And though Stiles disappeared way too suddenly once again today, he can wait for another 90 minutes before texting, Danny thinks.  
Once he looks at his phone after class, he's glad he didn't look earlier, because **those** news definitely would've distracted him from class.

**From: Stiles “Batman” Stilinski**  
_Photo received_  
_I don't think I was supposed to take this with me._

The photo shows Danny's strawberries, strewn across the floor with a single one in Stiles' hand. He doesn't want to get any hopes up about what this might mean. What Stiles could do with this ability. If he ever finds out how to use it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think there's about one chapter left for me to write. Maybe I'll wrap the epilogue I alread have planned out up in it, maybe I'll post it seperately, maybe I'll only post the epilogue. We will have to see, won't we?


	5. Boyfriends to Forever- The epilogue

Stiles is scared. It's their second anniversary and he wants to surprise Danny in a way that he probably won't be expecting. He still can't actually believe that he sat down with Jackson to try this when he told Danny “Babe I need to have a talk with your best friend, no you cannot know, get out of the room and I'll tell you what this is about some time soon.” Danny looks to Jackson questioningly, who just nods, so he accepts and lets the two of them do whatever they're up to.  
Behind the locked doors, Stiles starts to explain his plan to Jackson.  
“Listen, I know you don't like me that much, if at all, but I want to do something for Danny. A surprise kinda, maybe for his birthday soon, maybe a bit later. I don't know if it'll work right away, or if it will ever work at all... But I need to try. Did he... did he ever actually tell you where I'm from?”  
The blond man rolls his eyes. “Stop rambling, it's annoying. I don't hate you yet, so don't make me. And yes, he told me, but I had to drag it out of him a few weeks ago. So, what's your plan now?”  
“I... I found out recently that I can apparently... take things with me. From here. And I kinda tried practicing to take things, but there's only so big of a thing that I can take without him noticing. The weirdest thing I tried was probably the cat I found on the street the other day... I sent Danny off to his tutor child and said I'd leave right after. But I took some time to play with a stray, totally forgot about controlling what I do and then it jumped home with me and she was fine so I brought her back here and it made me think... Maybe I could take him there too...But he cannot know that in case he gets his hopes up and I fail and he's disappointed..”  
“So you want me to be your test bunny.” Jackson interjects. “Sure, because that will totally not go wrong.” The sarcasm is basically dripping from his voice, but Stiles decides to ignore him and just grabs him by the shoulder. “Great!”  
It takes a few moments for him to focus, and imagine him and Jackson back home where he left, but finally he manages and Jackson topples away from him, standing in the middle of Stiles' living room.  
“What. The. HELL, Stilinski?! That was not what I meant! You know what's going on now, now get me the hell home!”  
Stiles just laughs and grabs Jackson again. “Thank you.”  
When they're back on the couch with Danny, neither of them lose a word about it. But Jackson is kind of proud of the things this crazy guy is doing for his best friend. 

~~

Danny is practically sitting on packed bags. He's finished school, learned everything from college and passed his final tests, just ready for the job he's managed to score. He would be worried about moving, about Stiles maybe not being able to find him if he went away, if it were any other place he'd be moving to. But he's moving in with Stiles. In his world, wherever that is now.  
He's been there a few times so far, met Scott and a few others of Stiles friends, learning what being in this world means and how it isn't even too different from his own home. Looking into it, there's even a small town and a college with the names of his own hometown and the college he went to up until two weeks ago, when he graduated. Just... without him there. Stiles offered to look into some police reports and do background checks, but he doesn't want to know if someone with his family name ever lived there. It would be too much knowledge.  
But he doesn't want to think about that now, the only thing he needs is for Stiles to come back and pick up the last of his stuff. And him.  
That's the exact moment Stiles sends him a set of pictures. The first one is a close-up of a key, in the background is the blurry picture of a house. The second one shows Stiles' hand unlocking a door. Picture number three is a spacious living room, the fourth is a selfie that Stiles has taken, in front of an open wardrobe. The contents of Danny's clothing boxes that Stiles had taken with him earlier that week are hung up on the racks and placed neatly into the drawers next to a bunch of his boyfriend's graphic tees. One of his hats sits crookedly on top of Stiles' messy hair and Danny's heart jumps at the smile he is sporting. The desire he feels to be with him right now is massive, and he jumps right onto him when they're finally face to face again, still wearing the hat.  
It falls to the floor as Danny buries his hands in the dark, fluffy hair, wraps his legs around Stiles' hips (finally possible after the other boy had had a growth spurt the year before and was now two inches taller), lips nibbling and sucking at the other boy's mouth. The kiss is heated an enthusiastic, like they haven't seen each other in months instead of the three days it has actually been. It's hard to let go even for a second, but he forces himself to do so. Stiles' face is still pulled into a broad grin, the look inn his eyes soft and loving.  
“Let's go home, babe. _Our_ new home.”  
He reaches for Danny's last two bags, then his hand, and the very next moment, they're standing in their bedroom. Danny's phone vibrates in his pocket, showing a text from his best friend.

**From: Jackass <3 **  
_Don't think that you living with your adorable boyfriend now wherever you are means that you're allowed to forget about me now. And get your shit together and ask him. You know what I mean. He makes you happy and he's worth it.”_

**To: Jackass <3 **  
_Thanks, I love you too, brother. And I won't forget you, how could I ever, really?_

Danny feels the little box in his front pocket burn like hot iron on his skin, but it's not uncomfortable. It's a promise, it's hope. It's a piece of future. He looks at Stiles with a grin, flashes his dimples.  
“Sti, I need to ask you something.”  
Then he sinks onto one knee and hold the little box out in front of him, opening it in the progress, to show a simple, silver ring with a small engraving. _I'd be skipping the world for you._ with a small skip button right next to it.  
His boyfriend -fiance?- just let's out a happy sob, falls into his arms and kisses him, nodding, before Danny can even start to pose the question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, it seems that this is it. I've spent less time on this last chapter than I would have liked to, but I like it how it is anyways. I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, I'd be very happy if you left a kudos and maybe a comment. You could also tell me if you had an idea that you'd like me to try and turn into a story!


End file.
